A Hop, Skip and a Jump Away: Take that, Winter!

Let's just pretend that your car was trapped in a pit of snow and ice for four days, and in spite of numerous attempts to remove it from the icy grave you call a driveway, the car will not budge. So, you finally concede defeat and hire a tow truck to pull it out. A hundred dollars later, you are happily speeding down the highway singing "I'm free at last! I am free!". Then the following day, as your daughter is driving the recently rescued car to school, the back tire blows. You thank Heavenly Father that she is okay and that a friend is nearby to drive her the remainder of the way to school, but there is a tiny part of you that is not feeling so grateful and wants nothing more than to throw one giant, colossal temper tantrum, which involves kicking every particle of snow back to where it came from and uttering that oh-so-delightful word that can only be released in times of your deepest, darkest frustration:

FUDGE!!!! (wink, wink)

but you don't. Instead, you decide that the best way to retaliate against this dreadfully long, and ridiculously cold, and excessively snow-packed winter is to kill it with kindness. That's right because let's be honest, there is nothing more annoying than when you are trying to coax someone into anger and they refuse to bite. So, instead of waving your white flag just yet, you are going to indulge me and allow me to focus on all those things that I really do love about winter, you know those cozy winter fantasies we tossed a side along with our hundredth shovelful of snow during Blizzard #3. We have to find a way to cope with all this ridiculousness because, in spite of your lovely FB countdowns to spring that say we only have 22 more days left, no one is falling for it. We live in Canada, spring begins in the middle of May, which means we have two and a half more months of this snowy, cold bliss. We need to come up with a better strategy of attack than whiny complaints and tantrums. We need to fight back and show Winter we are tough, and we can handle anything it throws our way.

Oh, dearest Winter! Although you are cold, miserable and snowy, and in spite of the fact that you have eaten up all of my spare cash in exorbitant heating bills, replacement shovels for those that have been lost or broken, copious bags of salt and sand, tow trucks and five new winter tires, I still love you. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

1.Let's get the obvious ones out of the way first - Christmas and my birthday!

2. Snow days - heck, this winter we even got to share two snow days with Mr.Level-Headed. That never happens!

3. Movies - oh, how I love to curl up with my fleecy throw, a bowl of popcorn on my lap, and my peeps all around me to watch an entertaining movie. One of my faves this winter was The Book Thief and in theatre - The Imitation Game. Of course, there was also the finale to the Hobbit, which was AWESOME!

4.Comfort food - storm chips, storm cookies, storm pop, storm cakes, storm candy. The list goes on and on. Unfortunately, all these yummy treats will bring on what I think will be the hottest hashtag of spring: #storm20. You all remember the frosh 15, well this is pretty much the same thing, but 5 lbs worse.

5. Storm babies! Another hashtag I foresee being very popular this spring. Come on, there are only so many movies you can watch . . . wink, wink.

6. A clean dog! Without any mud puddles to splash in, dirt to roll in and the river to swim in, Scout is one very clean puppy. Mind you, he is excessively furry at the moment and fat, but I can handle fur more than I can handle dirt.

7. A break from shaving my legs! I know I can't be the only one . . .

8. Wool sweaters and lots and lots of layers, to cover up those hairy legs and the #storm20 I put on (for extra insulation mind you).

9. Early bedtimes - if you come by my house anytime after 9:30 pm lately, you will find all the lights off and six Websters snoozing soundly (we can thank the lack of daylight hours as well as all those storm carbs.)

and finally:

10. Playing with my baby in the snow . . .